These services alone would make seagrass meadows among the most economically valuable ecosystems on Earth. But now Dr. Harvell, Dr. Lamb and their colleagues have found that these plants may help us in another way: by wiping out pathogens. Levels of the bacteria in water from seagrass meadows, they found, were a third of the levels in water from other sites. Water from the seagrass meadows had only half the level of this DNA, compared with water collected at other sites. Reefs next to seagrass meadows, they found, were half as diseased as those without meadows.

Source: New York Times February 16, 2017 18:56 UTC